Yehudis Fishman

Yehudis Fishman has been teaching Torah and Chassidic philosophy to people of all ages and backgrounds for over fifty years. For the last six years, she has been the spiritual director of congregation Aish Kodesh in Boulder, Co. and continues to teach and counsel. Her qualities of erudition, relevance, sensitivity, and humor endear her to a broad spectrum of multigenerational students.

For a large part of my life, I have felt out of sync with my surroundings. On one hand, I guess the sense of disconnect pushed me to go deeper within, but on the other hand it created obvious dissonance. I even felt it when I discovered the magic of the J...

As I approached my twenties, I was determined to overcome my shyness and have the chutzpah to approach people and ask if they would like to say a blessing on the Four Kinds, which the sages say bring unity to the Jewish people.

What kept me there for almost half a century was the realization that I had a long-lasting impact on children—and later adults—that continued over a lifetime, and, in some cases, from my theological vantage point, even beyond...

When did you hide the smoldering embers of your soul in the stifling closet of propriety? Was it when you tasted the pride of peer embrace, that cast you in a less than suitable space, of sterile proportions?

In 1950, my father passed away, but I didn't know about it until the morning of the funeral. I woke up all excited because not only was it my elementary school graduation, but I was supposed to sing a lullaby that I had composed and written myself...